The dead are dancing
by Siera110
Summary: When engineer Isaac Clarke crash lands in Alagaësia, he meets a young farm boy turned rider who might not be the strangest thing he discovers. Now, struggling to deal with his dementia and help a certain rebellion, he finds out that living in his past will never end his nightmares, all he has to do is let it go.
1. Prologue

Three weeks... Three long weeks he's been stuck in that shuttle, forced to sit idly by as he floated around deep in space. Nicole's words played themselves over and over again in his head as he just sat there thinking about what had happened on the Ishimura. The seemingly simple repair mission, the necromorphs, Nicole, oh Nicole, and is was all that THINGs fault! if they hadn't have found it none of this would have happened! he would be with her and they would both be happy and safe.

The shuttles nav-computer awoke the engineer from his deep thought. APPROACHING UNKNOWN PLANET, TIME UNTIL IMPACT, THIRTY MINUTES. Unknown planet, but that couldn't be right, the nearest star system to Aegis VII was too far away to be reached within three months, let alone within three weeks. As the planet neared Isaac noticed something rather peculiar about the way it looked, it had a atmosphere very similar to that on Earth, yet was nearly twice the size.

Not wanting to go unprepared should the mystery planet be inhabited, Isaac checked his inventory, good, he still had at least five large med packs, and almost twelve smaller ones, he also had his Plasma Cutter, Pulse Rifle and his Contact Beam, with enough ammo to last him for a long time. Choosing to leave the rest of his tools and items on the ship, the engineer strapped himself into his seat and prepared for a rough landing.

**AN: Ok this is my first story so please, no flames, although I would like some constructive feedback if you can spare it. Sierra110 out!**


	2. New arrival

"Eragon, wake up."

Eragon grumbled and turned in his sleep.

"Eragon, wake up." it was louder this time.

The young rider just dismissed it as a dream.

"Boy, if you don't wake up right now I'm going to dump you in the river!", Brom shouted.

Eragon jolted out of his sleeping roll to see what was the matter, only to find the old storyteller standing above him with a worried expression.

"Brom what is it? It's far too early to get up yet.", the boy complained.

"Look", was all he replied, pointing his finger off into the distance.

Eragon followed the old man's finger and sure enough he discovered what all the fuss was about. A huge pillar of smoke drifted up out of the forrest and into the sky a few leagues away from their current camp

"What do you think it is?", asked Eragon inquisitively.

"I don't know." Was all that his companion said."But whatever it is, it isn't natural, we had better get there and find out before someone else does."

As if on Que. the temporary camps third occupant awoke from her slumber with a deep yawn.

_Little one, what's going on? Isn't it a bit early to be waking up?_

_I know Saphira, but Brom's seen something and he wants to go and have a closer look._

_But little one, I want to go back to sleep!_

_Don't worry Saphira, I promise that as soon as we're done checking this thing out, we will both have a nice long nap._

_Ok fine, as long as you keep that promise, I'll go with you to check it out too._

_Thank you_.

"Now boy, are we going to get moving or not? Because I definitely don't want to stay here any longer than we already need to."

"Aye we're coming, I just needed to convince Saphira to wake up.", Eragon replied.

"Good, then let's get going, I personally don't want to know what would happen if a bunch of urgals got their grubby hands on it."

And with that they went off towards the mystery object, Brom setting the pace at a brisk trot, soon turning into a lazy gallop until finally, they approached the strange object.

Upon getting a closer look they discovered that it was a large piece of metal, moulded into the basic shape of a bird, of course, that's where the similarity ended.

For one, its entire body was at least as large as Saphira's.

Another peculiarity that separated it from its biological cousin was that its wings were short and rigid, making it seemingly impossible to get into the air.

Then they looked at where the beak usually was, only to find a strange glass dome, with a dark silhouette moving around rapidly inside, before disappearing deeper inside the metal monstrosity.

While they were all looking in awe at the creation, none of them noticed that someone had beaten them to it, and at someone happened to be a large pack of urgals, and they were very mad at the prospect of someone stealing their prize.

"Boy, you take the three urgals hanging back at the left and I will get the four on the right.", Brom hastily told Eragon, nudging him for emphasis.

_Saphira, could you try and get behind them to flush them out?_

_I can do more than try, little one._

However, before anyone could begin to fight, the rear of the strange contraption began to open, and reveal a man wearing the strangest suit of armour Eragon had ever seen. All the strange man did was say five words,

"what the hell are you?"

**AN: I think we're done here, however, if you like the prospect of this story, be sure to leave some suggestions and of course, please review!**


	3. Giant space monkeys!

**AN: Now I am just going to say that I was quite disappointed with my previous two chapters simply because of their short length and lack of detail. However, I am making a commitment to make my chapters each at least 1k long each although this may extend update times so please bear with me on this.**

Isaac groaned as he struggled to open his eyelids. He had not fared very well during the crash. Painfully, he got himself into a sitting position in his chair. Luckily for him, the ships hull didn't breach during re-entry. The bad news was, Isaac now didn't know which systems were working and which were offline.

Getting out of his seat, he went over to check on the controll panel.

No power, damn.

Opening up the panel, Isaac began to reroute the power to the main computer. Thankfully for him, it was relatively easy, and in a few seconds, the panel lit up.

"Computer, systems check", Isaac croaked.

ENGINES, OFFLINE.

COMMUNICATIONS, OFFLINE.

LIFE SUPPORT, ONLINE.

HULL CAMERAS, OFFLINE.

SHIP INTEGRITY, STABLE.

Well that was just great. Stuck on an uncharted planet with no way to call for help. Why was it that he always seemed to land himself in these kinds of situations? Getting up out of his seat, Isaac took a moment to inspect the damage he had done to his ship. For a high orbit entry it was surprisingly minimal. All he had to do was fix the communication array and acquire a new power source for the engines. Now that was where it was bound to get difficult. Without a proper energy input his shuttle wasn't going anywhere.

Just then he noticed a pair of people with a big blue, _thing_, apparently facing off with a bunch of over-sized gorillas outside the ship. Not wanting for things to escalate lest he never get home, Isaac quickly opened the bay doors and walked out to meet the belligerents. Immediately he froze in place.

"What, the hell are you?", he asked in a shocked tone.

Needless to say, the reaction he received from the giant monkeys was less than polite.

"You! Human, this is our metal bird now! Leave before we kill you!", The largest demanded.

"The hell it is!", The engineer replied before pulling out his plasma cutter and training it on the lead monkeys arm.

A trio of blue dots appeared on his arm, just above the elbow. Before the large Urgal could so much as swing his sword at the human, Isaac activated the firing mechanism. In a flash of blue light, a bolt of super-heated plasma shot out of the re-purposed tool, before burying itself into the beasts arm and severing it from the shoulder down.

With a cry of pain, the Urgal looked down at what remained of his limb, before staring up at the armored monstrosity before him in terror. His pain was mercifully cut of when another bolt sent itself through his neck, decapitating him.

By the time the remainder of the pack broke out of their stupor, Isaac had stowed his plasma cutter and brought out the pulse rifle. With fearsome war cries, the remaining Urgals charged at the human, thinking to avenge their fallen leader.

Isaac began to open fire on the brutes, sending a storm of bullets towards them. The damage was not for the faint of heart, as limbs were severed, heads rendered from their bodies, and in one case, the fast projectiles managed to saw one of them in half. Within seconds all but one of the Urgals were dead. Before he could finish it off, a sword emerged from its chest. The glistening blade stayed there for a second, before retreating and allowing The body to fall to the floor.

Bringing his rifle to bear, the engineer aimed at the closest of the three he had managed to neglect. The first was an old man, in his late fifties or early sixties. The second was a boy, barely out of his teenage years. The young man seemed to be focusing on something off in the distance. That brought Isaac to the third member of the party.

The creature was massive, iridescent blue scales, ranging from the size of a fingernail to larger than his fist, covered it's body. A pair of massive blue eyes, filled with cold intelligence, glared down at him. If Isaac hadn't been through the horrors of the Ishimura, he would've pissed his pants. Then he noticed the wings, hidden behind its body, each at least half as large as the ruined shuttle.

Before he could aim his rifle at the thing, the old man spoke out.

"Please, lower your weapon. We mean you no harm"

Despite his instincts screaming at him to shoot them all, Isaac lowered his rifle, though still keeping a firm grip on it. Now it was his time to speak.

"Could any of you tell me where the hell I am?", He demanded.

"You're just outside the city of Terim", The man replied.

"No, I mean what planet? What system?", He inquired further.

"What do you mean 'system'? Because unless your from outside the border, I have no clue what you're talking about."

"You know, system. As in star system."

At this the boy seemed to loose it, and began staring directly at Isaac.

"Hey kid! What are you looking a-", Isaac couldn't finish his sentence, before his head was enveloped in pain. Screaming, he grabbed at his helmet, as if to stop it with sheer force. There, right in front of him, was Nicole. But this Nicole was different, her body badly decomposed, blades sprouting from her wrists. The head was hanging lopsidedly like a dead branch that needed pruning. The things belly was split, intestines forming arms under the larger ones. Isaac searched for a weapon but found none, he was defenseless. The hallucination stared at him coldly, then opened its mouth and began to speak.

_We will find you Isaac, and when we do, you shall watch as this world burns. Your friends will be consumed, and you will be left behind, for you are unworthy._

With that, the Nicole thing lunged at him, arms raised and blades pointing downwards before he fell unconscious.

**AN: I'm going to end this here ladies and gentlemen. Please don't forget to review! Goodnight.**


	4. Invasive presence

**AN: Sorry for the delay everyone, I've been real tied up with school an homework recently so I haven't had time to update this. But I'm back now and can finally get some shit done.**

When the Urgals turned to attack the strangely armored man, Eragon knew he didn't stand a chance. Before he could go and help him however, the man pulled out quite possibly the strangest looking weapon he had ever seen.

I was reasonably sized, as the man was able to lift it with one hand. It appeared to have a handle, which then extends and curves downward, making it look like a crossbow of some sorts. What astonished Eragon the most was that it seemed to be made almost completely out of metal, with strange blue lights coming out and appearing in a line on whatever it was pointed at. Which just so happened to be the largest Urgals arm.

Just when the Urgal was about to attack the man, a bolt of bright blue light shot out of his strange weapon, and into the hapless Urgal. What happened next astounded, terrified and disgusted Eragon all at once. As soon as the bolt hit the Urgal, the limb simply ceased to be. In a swift, clean cut, the energy went into and through the Urgals arm, severing it from the rest of the body. As the Urgal roared in pain, the man moved his weapon so that the lights were lined upon the Urgals neck, before repeating the process and decapitating the poor creature.

As the remaining pack members roared their challenge to the man, he put away his weapon for a larger one. This weapon was different to the previous, for starters it was longer, requiring two hands to hold. It also seemed to be composed of a single central tube, with three triangles at the front and a part at the back that the man put to his shoulder, like a true crossbow.

Whilst the previous weapon sent out bolts of energy that sliced through flesh and bone, this one instead sent a flurry projectiles to its target at a monstrous rate, making a steady 'ping' noise as it did. The Urgals didn't stand a chance, as they were cut down in moments. Just as the last one was preparing to strike the man, Brom suddenly lunged forward and stabbed it through the back and into its chest.

I was then that the stranger seemed to remember them standing there. Within a heartbeat, he had pointed his weapon at Brom, and in doing so Saphira crouched low, ready to rip him to pieces if necessary. Brom, ever the diplomat, spoke out to the stranger.

"Please, lower your weapon. We mean you no harm", He asked.

The man, as bloodthirsty as he was, obliged.

"Could any of you tell me where the hell I am?", The stranger asked.

As he and Brom were having their discussion, so were Eragon and Saphira.

_What do you think he is Saphira?_

_Well he smells human, he looks like a human, and he talks like one too, so I'm pretty sure he's a human little one._

_I know but, do you think we should check his mind just in case?  
_

_Perhaps, but we should be careful not to alert him to it._

_Good idea Saphira, but I'll need your help to do it._

_Very well little one, I will help you._

Just as the strange man was talking to Brom about 'star systems' he and Saphira chose then to invade his mind.

The man turned to look at him before asking,

"Hey kid, what are you looking a-"

Just as he tried to enter his mind, he encountered a barrier unlike anything before. Instead of repelling invaders, it seemed to suck them in. And yet, the barrier didn't feel like it belonged to the man, but instead belonged to something else entirely. As he tried to stop the thing from absorbing his mind, he saw the man collapsing in front of him, before his vision went black.

Eragon found himself in a dark room, a small light glowing softly above. He looked around, noticing the seeming emptiness of the room. Then he saw it. Right in the middle of the floor was a body, wreathed in blood. Upon closer inspection, the body seemed human, but badly decomposed. Just then Eragon heard a sound behind him. Turning around, he saw nothing, but when he looked back, the body was gone. looking around he found a shadow in the corner. As he investigated, Eragon realized that this was the same body as before, only this time, it wasn't so dead. Screaming inconsistently, the monster charged at the boy, only to fade as his connection with the strange mans twisted mind was broken.

Eragon woke up to see Broms angry face staring down at him.

"Just what the hell did you think you were doing boy!", He yelled at him

"I was just trying to see if he really was human", Eragon defended.

"And in doing so, nearly killing both of you", Brom growled.

Eragon got up to see the strange man lying on the floor. Just as he went to see if he was conscious, the man suddenly leaped up and placed his weapon to Eragon's chin.

"What the fuck did you do to me!?", He snarled.

Upon seeing this, Saphira roared, something that would cause the normal man to lie on the floor and wait to die. The man just shrugged it off saying,

"Nice try lizard, but I've seen things that would make your tail twirl, now back off before I blow his head off!"

For the first time since meeting this strange man, Eragon feared for his life.

**A.N: Sorry for the cliffhanger but it's late and I need to go to bed. Promise to update soon! Goodnight.**


End file.
